Vatican could compensate victims of late papal nuncio

Speaking in Havana on Sunday, 20 September 2015, Vatican spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi said that the Vatican would be open to compensating the victims of late papal nuncio Jozef Wesolowski who died before standing trial for sexual abuse of underage boys in the Dominican Republic. Local prosecutors had presented the Vatican with evidence of the crimes. Wesolowski served as the Vatican’s envoy in the Dominican Republic for five years before being recalled after local TV investigative journalists were on his trail. Another Polish priest accused of pedophilia fled to Poland and was tried in a local court, and was ordered to pay compensation to his Dominican victims.

Lombardi said that the victims’ families would need to make the request to Dominican judicial authorities, which would then submit it to the Vatican. He added the Vatican was open to assessing them, which opens up the possibility of compensation for the victims.

Lombardi told a Dominican journalist: “I don’t have a concrete solution. I should say that if there’s a problem, and if there’s a petition, it can be presented to see if there are concrete possibilities to help find an acceptable solution.”

Wesolowski died in Rome on 28 August 2015, reportedly of a heart attack.

The papal nuncio case involves the highest-ranking Vatican official ever charged with the crime and was seen as a test to see if the Vatican had changed its way of protecting sex offenders in the clergy.